Mathilda Kauppila (they/she) is a dance maker based in Finland.
They are fascinated by engaging their expertise in sociology, dramaturgy, movement and body awareness into observing, sensing, designing and facilitating social spaces, structures and dramaturgies. Their work has mainly taken place in the Eastern Finland (Kuopio, Joensuu, Kangasniemi) and has been supported by for example Nordic Culture Point, The Arts Promotion Centre Finland, The Finnish Cultural Foundation, The Regional Dance Centre of Eastern Finland and Jenny & Antti Wihuri's Foundation.
Mathilda Kauppila studied dance, performance and movement research in The Norths Karelia College Outokumpu (2015-2017). Since then they have worked widely as performer, choreographer, community artist and movement educator widely around Finland. and the Nordics. In 2025-2027 they took some time to complement their professional skills in the Dance Performance MA program in The University of Arts in Helsinki, Finland.
Here are some of my latest and dearest works:
[ pinta ]
working group: Mathilda Kauppila, Ida Teeri, Tuomas Vainionpää, Tatu Vanhatalo, Fredriikka Voutilainen
2025
[ pinta ] (the surface) is a contemporary dance triptych work that explores parallelism, togetherness and separation. The three parts of the work were created side by side by the same working group, yet with three different dance artists leading the artistic process. The work premiered at ITAK-stage in Kuopio, Finland.
GOSSIP
working group: Nora Fuchs (SE), Laura Hagen Aagaard (DK), Mathilda Kauppila (FI), Anna Caroline Kristensen (DK) & Rebecca Laube-Pohto (FI)
2024-2025
Gossip was a 1,5 hours immersive interdisciplinary dance performance taking place in Jyväskylä, Finland 24.-27.9.2025 as part of The Jyväskylä Dance Festival. The audience was guided through different spaces, different universes, different ways of looking, from different angles… Can the stories we create become more real than the truth? Even if everything is a lie, why aren’t we at least making it beautiful? The concept was originally tested in Sydkoster, Sweden and carried out finally in Jyväskylä, Finland.
PELTO
consept: Jukka Ristolainen / Kokko1721 Residency & Hieho homma
2020-2023
A site sensitive spectacle built on a field and a farm in small rural village in Kangasniemi, Finland. In this work the multidisciplinary working group researched the materiality and semiotics of a field. PELTO premiered on Kokko1721 field in Aug 2021 and was remade to Ollinaho farm Aug 2023.
s o f t s h i f t s
concept: Mathilda Kauppila / working group including: Heli Jauhiainen & Jaakko Arola
2022-2023
A performance installation that proposes rest, play and sensing. The working group Mathilda Kauppila (dance artist), Heli Jauhiainen (visual artist) and Jaakko Arola (musician-instrument builder) have been busy with exploring bodily co-regulation and slowly shifting landscapes.
mm it’s like but mm you know ?
solo work
2022
A performative landscape that invites one to a playful state of associating and grasping shared moments and intuitive knowledge beyond words.
Työkaluja tyhjäntoimittamiseen / Tools for idleness
solo project in artistic dialogue with Aura Savolainen
2021 – continuing
Mathilda Kauppila’s multi-disciplinary choreographic project that supports unproductivity and idleness. The project aims on normalizing rest and assuaging the stimulus flood. It seeks to recognize the social and political structures surrounding the phenomenom; for example how one’s ethnic background or economic capital affects the possibilities to choose unproductivity and be safe while practising it in public. Since 2021 this project has taken forms such as social choreography, performative lecture and poetic guide booklet.
Yhtä Matkaa
working group: Mathilda Kauppila, Teo Mattila, Jussi Ulkuniemi
2019-2021
A community art project organised together with The Centre for Palliative Care in Joensuu (Siun Sote). The working group proposed body awareness, movement and creative practices and sharing their story through photographing for people working in palliative care, people in palliative care and their close ones. The project ended in an event series of photography installation, performances and a panel discussion.
They are fascinated by engaging their expertise in sociology, dramaturgy, movement and body awareness into observing, sensing, designing and facilitating social spaces, structures and dramaturgies. Their work has mainly taken place in the Eastern Finland (Kuopio, Joensuu, Kangasniemi) and has been supported by for example Nordic Culture Point, The Arts Promotion Centre Finland, The Finnish Cultural Foundation, The Regional Dance Centre of Eastern Finland and Jenny & Antti Wihuri's Foundation.
Mathilda Kauppila studied dance, performance and movement research in The Norths Karelia College Outokumpu (2015-2017). Since then they have worked widely as performer, choreographer, community artist and movement educator widely around Finland. and the Nordics. In 2025-2027 they took some time to complement their professional skills in the Dance Performance MA program in The University of Arts in Helsinki, Finland.
Here are some of my latest and dearest works:
[ pinta ]
working group: Mathilda Kauppila, Ida Teeri, Tuomas Vainionpää, Tatu Vanhatalo, Fredriikka Voutilainen
2025
[ pinta ] (the surface) is a contemporary dance triptych work that explores parallelism, togetherness and separation. The three parts of the work were created side by side by the same working group, yet with three different dance artists leading the artistic process. The work premiered at ITAK-stage in Kuopio, Finland.
GOSSIP
working group: Nora Fuchs (SE), Laura Hagen Aagaard (DK), Mathilda Kauppila (FI), Anna Caroline Kristensen (DK) & Rebecca Laube-Pohto (FI)
2024-2025
Gossip was a 1,5 hours immersive interdisciplinary dance performance taking place in Jyväskylä, Finland 24.-27.9.2025 as part of The Jyväskylä Dance Festival. The audience was guided through different spaces, different universes, different ways of looking, from different angles… Can the stories we create become more real than the truth? Even if everything is a lie, why aren’t we at least making it beautiful? The concept was originally tested in Sydkoster, Sweden and carried out finally in Jyväskylä, Finland.
PELTO
consept: Jukka Ristolainen / Kokko1721 Residency & Hieho homma
2020-2023
A site sensitive spectacle built on a field and a farm in small rural village in Kangasniemi, Finland. In this work the multidisciplinary working group researched the materiality and semiotics of a field. PELTO premiered on Kokko1721 field in Aug 2021 and was remade to Ollinaho farm Aug 2023.
s o f t s h i f t s
concept: Mathilda Kauppila / working group including: Heli Jauhiainen & Jaakko Arola
2022-2023
A performance installation that proposes rest, play and sensing. The working group Mathilda Kauppila (dance artist), Heli Jauhiainen (visual artist) and Jaakko Arola (musician-instrument builder) have been busy with exploring bodily co-regulation and slowly shifting landscapes.
mm it’s like but mm you know ?
solo work
2022
A performative landscape that invites one to a playful state of associating and grasping shared moments and intuitive knowledge beyond words.
Työkaluja tyhjäntoimittamiseen / Tools for idleness
solo project in artistic dialogue with Aura Savolainen
2021 – continuing
Mathilda Kauppila’s multi-disciplinary choreographic project that supports unproductivity and idleness. The project aims on normalizing rest and assuaging the stimulus flood. It seeks to recognize the social and political structures surrounding the phenomenom; for example how one’s ethnic background or economic capital affects the possibilities to choose unproductivity and be safe while practising it in public. Since 2021 this project has taken forms such as social choreography, performative lecture and poetic guide booklet.
Yhtä Matkaa
working group: Mathilda Kauppila, Teo Mattila, Jussi Ulkuniemi
2019-2021
A community art project organised together with The Centre for Palliative Care in Joensuu (Siun Sote). The working group proposed body awareness, movement and creative practices and sharing their story through photographing for people working in palliative care, people in palliative care and their close ones. The project ended in an event series of photography installation, performances and a panel discussion.
Header photo: Karoliina Gavrilov
